WLF covered our expenses to move out to Iowa. So my least favorite part of moving - PACKING - wasn't my burden to bare! Two burly men came to our apartment on a Monday and got busy packing all of our stuff. It was impressive how relatively quickly they got the job done by having all the tools and supplies on hand. They had gobs of paper and boxes in uniform sizes. They were fairly systematic about boxing and labeling everything in my house. I didn't understand to what extent they would be packing though...I was told we'd likely be able to sleep in our house that night as the next day would be the actual moving day. So I assumed we'd have some bedding and supplies to use the following morning.
I don't know what my brain was thinking.
When lunch rolled around and the two dudes bounced to the nearest gas station, I was left at home with leftovers in the fridge and absolutely no utensils to eat with. I microwaved my little bowl of fried rice and promptly shoveled it into my mouth with my hand. I sat on my kitchen chair in the middle of my living room just staring out my curtainless windows. This was my sad hour of solitary confinement. My phone was nearly dead and everything was ever so quiet, minus my refrigerator. My fridge has always been loud.
We went to Olive Garden in Layton that night and then drove out to Kaysville to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa Schroader. We ended up staying the night at Greg and Judy's because all our bedding got packed and we had no way of getting ready at our own place. Bill still had work in the morning, so we just got up early and Bill planned to drop me off at the house to be there for when the movers came.
When I walked upstairs and into the dining room, I was stunned to find a brand new piano bench - handcrafted (no joke!) by Greg! A few months ago my parents bought me an amazing piano from a school district auction. It's a little beat up, but plays beautifully! (I hope to have some time to refinish it once it warms up!) Fewer things have made me happier than to be the owner of my own piano! It only lacked a bench. And now I had one! I don't know when Greg had time to make me a piano bench amidst all the hours he was helping us out at our duplex. You should see this bench! It's better than anything I could have every found or bought myself! I cried inside! You could still smell the fresh coat of lacquer. Aw! 'Tis a masterpiece.
Back at our duplex, I busied myself with little things, but was surprised when an early knock came to my door. Mike the driver had arrived in his giant Mayflower semi truck. I quickly had to go knock on our neighbor's door to have him move his car so that the driver could pull forward and not be blocking the other neighbor's driveway...which really was a problem as she tried to pull out that morning. Ready or not, things were about to get real.
We did a walk-through of the house as I showed the driver what would stay and what would go. We started some paperwork and he got busy labeling everything that didn't fit in a box. He informed me of his route and that he would be arriving in Iowa on Friday, possibly Saturday if the weather was bad.
"This Friday?" I asked. "Not NEXT Friday?"
"This Friday!" was definitely his response. I kind of panicked.
Most people told us to expect the delivery of our stuff to be late. It happens all the time. Usually the driver gets behind schedule and a lot of people are ready to move into their house, but have no furniture until a week later. Bill and I were okay with that scenario because our stuff was going straight into a storage unit while we were stuck living in a hotel. We were not prepared for a situation in which our stuff might arrive early...Bill and I weren't going to be arriving in Iowa until Saturday.
I told the driver our situation and that we had been told to expect our delivery to be made on the following Tuesday. We weren't going to be in Iowa to accept his delivery if he came on Friday. The driver kind of panicked too. He calls up our moving-coordinator and they get snippety with each other. Our coordinator agrees to work things out. The driver hangs up and tells me to get to Iowa when I'm ready. This isn't either one of our problems. And that was that!
Shortly thereafter, Greg showed up for moral support and so that I could leave and get some things done around town. But an hour into the movers hauling stuff out to the semi, I realized that I too was blocked into our driveway and had no hope of getting out until the semi was gone. I felt horrible that Greg was now there for truly no reason! I sure enjoyed and appreciated his company though. We stood around in the freezing cold of my apartment as the door was wide open. I put hand warmers in my shoes in hopes of warming my feet (that only kind of works, for future reference) and wore my coat around the house. Greg was absolutely in awe of the system the movers had of getting the furniture packed with their packing blankets and GIANT rubberbands. Our driver was particularly efficient and definitely knew what he was doing! It was cool to watch.
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| Wrapping my couch for a safe journey. |
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| Our stuff piling up in the semi. |
As soon as the semi was gone, I was off to Logan to do all my last minute errands. I dropped some things off at Cache Valley Print and bought paint and other supplies at Home Depot. I bought and exchanged some new garments and dropped things off at the DI. Finally I was ready to hustle home so that we could go out to eat with my family at Maddox as our final good-bye.
We had dinner with Madre and Pops, Val and Marie, Jord and Missy, Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson, Grandma Higley and Erin and Phoenix. It was a nice little crew that I'm so glad I got to sit down with. I did really good without tearing up when hugging everyone good-bye (I had done this over and over again)...until Mom. Bah! Mom! You always make me cry...
After this late dinner, Kristi and Kyle wanted us to come by so that we could say our goodbyes to them and Cora and Penny. And so we did...and time passed all too quickly while we were there. We love the Allred's! Cora had already gone to sleep and was actually pretty sick, but Kristi and Kyle woke her up so she could say good-bye to 'Sica and Bill - which made our hearts so very, very happy!
Even though we felt like the evening should be close to over, we still needed to get back to our duplex to do a couple of little maintenance things and one last walk-through now that everything was gone. By the time we were able to leave and lock our door one last time it was close to 1:00am. Bleh...
On the Saturday before anything previously mentioned took place, Bill and his dad worked on his Trailblazer in preparation for our 1200 mile drive. The last thing we needed to do before we could leave for Iowa was to have an alignment done on the Trailblazer. So bright and early, Bill was up and at the top of the hill at the Jiffy Lube getting his alignment taken care of. He came back to Greg and Judy's and while we were eating breakfast, Bill got a call from Jiffy Lube...the news was NOT good. I don't remember or understand all of the details (and perhaps Bill can fill you in), but crap had hit the fan. And suddenly Jiffy Lube was quoting us on $1200 worth of work needing to be done before they would even think about doing the alignment. Ain't NOBODY got time for that...
Bill and Greg worked on the Trailblazer ALL day after that news was broken to us...and I know they have some miracle stories to share. With all the work they put into tightening up the front end of the Trailblazer, I'm ever so relieved that we found all this out when we did and not while being stranded on the side of the road with very limited resources. The whole situation was the biggest bummer in the world! But truly was a tender mercy from the Lord. He's always looking out for us. Always!
While everyone was away at work, I went to my parent's house. I had really wanted to get a father's blessing before I left, but had totally spaced asking my dad for one when we actually had the time...but because of our bummer car situation, I suddenly had no excuse NOT to ask Pops for a blessing. Pops was working from home that day and it just so happened to be my mom's day off. So I felt particularly blessed that they both were home for me to talk to one more time before leaving. Maddox was not our last good-bye after all! (Seriously...so many false good-byes!)
And finally I made it back to the Kiefer home where I had some delicious lasagna soup...home cooked meals sound so amazing to me right now!!! I'm already missing that big time!
The next morning, Bill got up early to go and get the alignment checked one final time (after receiving a father's blessing from his dad and officially saying "good-bye" to Judy as she left for work)...and everything worked out JUST FINE. He was able to pick up our U-Haul dolly for my car and everything was loaded up nicely.
At last...we could be on our way!
And so we were.
We hugged Greg good-bye and hopped in the Trailblazer...trying to keep it together.
We needed to drive up to the top of the hill to return something to O'Reilly Autoparts. But as we drove away from Bill's parents one last time to run our errand, we both became emotional wrecks. Sobs. Violent sobs. Saying good-bye is THE WORST. Plus, I have this huge tendency to cry whenever I see anyone else crying...but seeing your husband cry is one of the hardest sites to see. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and pretend like this wasn't really happening.
We reached O'Reilly's and parked the car. We cried together for a bit out in the parking lot, but had to regain some semblance of composure before going into the store.
When Bill came back to the car, suddenly...that was it! Our need to cry in that moment lifted. I think we both realized that this was actually happening and our new adventure was here and it was now. I don't know about Bill, but every time I thought about Iowa, I felt peace. I've never felt anxious about any of this. I felt that subtle sense of peace once more and it felt easy to drive away knowing that good things lie ahead of us. And we have so many marvelous tools with which we can stay connected to our friends and family! We've already heavily utilized the power of Skype, Snap-Chat, texts, e-mails, Facebook, and this blog. It's not like we won't ever see our families again! It probably won't be as special as we think it will be whenever we go home to visit - everyone will already be so sick of us. You may even know more about our lives than when we lived close!
Ultimately, it was peace that gave us the confidence to drive on. And so we did! :)
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